Paris Burns and the World Still Turns
by IR Magi
Summary: During the recent Paris terrorist attacks, an alien is inadvertently killed. Now the Doctor must confront the ramifications of this tragedy.


Sunna stood in the middle of a large crowd of Parisians as a heavy metal band played on stage. The lights flashed. The guitars roared. The music was artistic and tight. Everyone was enjoying themselves and the energy in the room was high. Sunna had her hands in the air and the guy to her right kept smiling at her. She was happy.

Despite her sister's warning, Sunna had decided to visit the City of Love for a unique Earth experience. Her Aunt, Rina, was the acting Regent for her home world while Sunna waited to come of age. In two years time, she would assume the throne and she would willingly give in to the day-to-day operations involved with ruling a benevolent planet. But until that time came, Sunna intended to enjoy the diversity life had to offer. After all, Rina was perfectly capable of ruling in her stead.

Suddenly, loud bangs filled the concert hall. People began to scream and run. Bodies crashed against Sunna and she felt herself no longer able to breathe. She reached for a communication device in her pocket. She pulled it out and as she pressed the emergency distress call a bullet ripped through her hand. At first, Sunna stood there unable to process the sight of her mangled limb. But eventually, the pain exploded into her body and she started to scream uncontrollably.

Eventually, the bodies disappeared around Sunna as people fled to different parts of the theater. Movement managed to draw her eyes away from her hand. Turning her head, she gazed upon the barrel of an AK47. The teenager behind the gun stared at her with flippant nonchalance. He fired a shot directly into her face, and the young heiress to the planet of Calcordia perished.

At the same time, Rina stood in her cloaked command ship on the dark side of the moon. This whole trip had made her nervous. She wanted to stay as close to Sunna as she could without suffocating her. Rina was a young woman herself. Raven black hair parted simply down the middle cradled her oval shaped face as she buttoned her garb. Rina was militaristic, and so her persona and her presence matched that rigid, calculating exterior.

When the distress call came through, a soldier from the command deck burst into her quarters. "Sunna is in trouble!" he said. Rina felt her blood freeze, but her body took flight all-the-same. Before she knew it, she was in the commander center of her destroyer and she began to assess the data.

The news was bad. Around the time Sunna activated her distress call, a terrorist attack broke out near her location. No. It was her exact location... _the concert hall_.

"Ready my ship!" Rina ordered through clenched teeth.

Thirty minutes later, which had felt like an eternity to Rina, the vessel landed near the concert hall. Police stood outside its confines in a disorganized and confused state. News crews stood even further away. Bodies lie scattered randomly throughout and around the area. Rina took the view in with a displeased look.

"They haven't even neutralized the threat," she realized. "The terrorists are still inside! To arms! Follow my lead!"

The men and women who had joined Rina on her flight quickly snapped up their weaponry. Rina unfastened the cloak she typically wore to reveal a layer of nimble battle armor underneath. Stepping down the ramp of the vessel next, she entered the fray with company in tow.

As she approached the building, the police and the bystanders watched in fear and uncertainty, because they could not tell if she was friend or foe. Rina passed by them without concern. As she entered the concert hall, she sent forth telepathic tendrils to locate the terrorists ahead of her. When she found them, she balked. The two men were gutting the injured victims on the floor. They weren't just killing them... they were torturing them... humiliating them...

Rina retrieved a rectangular hilt-like device from the lateral aspect of her thigh. She hit a button along its edge and a black pole jutted from the center of the hilt. The pole consisted of a black rock that, when exposed to Rina's energy field, began to ignite. Black turned into a fiery mix of blue and red as the material glowed to life. Heat burst forth from the weapon, and Rina charged forward.

Within moments she was upon the terrorists. She sliced through their weapons with her sword before cutting them apart limb by limb until only their head and torso remained. They would live, but in a reduced form now, because all their wounds were cauterized.

Retreating to the stage floor, Rina desperately looked through the bodies for Sunna. To his displeasure, she found her niece right away. And for a second time, her blood ran cold. Sunna's face... her beautiful face... was gone...

Bending down, Rina scooped up her cherished family member. She carried her quietly out of the concert hall. Once outside, she told the police the terrorists were subdued, and a reporter stuck a microphone in her face.

"Who are you and why are you here?" the reporter asked.

Rina took a long time to respond. While waiting, her eyes quietly trailed over Sunna's lifeless form. When she found the words, she answered, "I am Rina Slowheart. I am from the planet Calcordia. Our future queen is dead. And I will make sure the Earth suffers for it."

"That doesn't sound good," said The Doctor from his favorite pub in downtown London. Watching the TV screen above the bar, he stared with narrowed eyes as the woman in battle attire entered her spaceship while carrying the lifeless female figure in her arms. His eyes then widened as the vessel ascended into the sky. He knew the species and their way of life, but the militaristic style projected by Ms. Slowheart was something new. His brow furrowed as he thought about it. But then he took another drink, and he pushed the matter aside. Earth had seen its fair share of aliens, and it had dealt with each encounter marvelously. This situation, The Doctor surmised, would be no different.

But when the next day came and the destroyer from the dark side of the moon started bombarding the Middle East, The Doctor continued to hesitate. One ship was still within the Earth's capabilities. But the fact The Doctor was reluctant to intervene surprised even himself. He was between companions, and for good reason. Things always reached a crescendo when he had one. And they themselves seemed to burn in his presence like Icarus in the sky.

So, The Doctor returned to his favorite pub for another drink. And when the following day came, and the bombarding remained, still he refrained. It wasn't until the television above the bar flickered with static and the beautiful face of Rina appeared on the screen that The Doctor knew he had to finally intervene.

"Greetings, inhabitants of the Earth," said Rina—her voice cold and distant. "My bombardment continues for a third day. I have devastated several military installations belonging to those responsible for the terrorist attacks in Paris. But after much research, I wonder if the barrage doesn't need to expand, for I am not very fond of the religion that spawned these barbarians. There is so much that is fractured and wrong with your planet. Tyrants still exist in places called… North Korea, and Cuba. Wealth disparity is at record levels. And countless people are being oppressed for… one reason or another. I can't help but fight the urge to simply subjugate your people, annihilate you altogether, or relocate the more reasonable among you to a new world. So it has come to this: you will join me in destroying this religion, this abominable ideology, and all that it has touched, infected, and manipulated; or I will destroy you… _all of you_.

"Inside the tectonic fissures of your oceans, I have placed several metastatic bombs. You have 30 days to do as I say, or I will detonate these weapons and your shores will flood and earthquakes will wrack your world. I estimate only 40% of you will survive the detonation. The rest of you will fall as you eat away at yourselves like the apes that you are. That's all for now."

"Since when did you become so bold?" The Doctor asked the TV, though his statement was in reference to the brashness of Rina and the people she represented—a people who were never this aggressive. "Right then," said The Doctor as he gathered his things and made for the exit. "Time to give you a little perspective."

Moments later, the TARDIS was whirring inside the command deck of Rina's destroyer and out popped The Doctor in all his flamboyance. "Hello-hello!" he said as his eyes swept about the room and his hands shifted into the pockets of his coat. He was immediately greeted by a barrage of security alarms. Men and women rushed about, and Rina withdrew her hilt. "Hold on! Hold on!" said The Doctor. "I'm just here to talk!"

After several uneasy seconds, Rina's stance relaxed. The alarms ended. And the room took a collective sigh of relief. "Who are you?" Rina snapped.

"I'm The Doctor," he answered. "And I just saw your message to the people of Earth. Very intimidating stuff. And I must say, you're very photogenic. The camera really loves you."

" _What_ do you want?" Rina sternly pressed.

"Well, I'm curious," said The Doctor. "Since when did your people become so… _confrontational_?"

Rina took a step toward The Doctor with her hilt in hand.

"And that sword," The Doctor continued, "I read the reports about what it does. Very impressive technology."

"We just lost our future queen, is that not reason enough for my actions?" Rina queried.

"No, no it's not," The Doctor retorted. "There's more at play here. What is it? Your people never had destroyers and soldiers. What happened?"

Rina's gaze lowered to the floor. The muscles in her eyes relaxed as she appeared to stare through the ground beneath her feet. "The Daleks happened," she finally answered. "When those 27 planets were stolen from their celestial homes, my people had a colony on one. So we went with them. The planet was called Mino, and our royal family resided there. The King and Queen and a fraction of the colonists managed to flee underground. The Dalek thought us extinguished. But for 200 years we planned. We plotted. And we built an armada. This ship is one of the flagships from that fleet. 10 years ago the plan was hatched. Three squadrons erupted from the bowels of Mino. We weren't going to fight the Daleks. We just wanted to fight our way _out_.

"During the escape, the King and Queen, who were in separate destroyers, perished; but their children and extended family escaped. I escaped. _Sunna escaped_." Rina's jaw suddenly tensed. Her grip on her hilt tightened and her knuckles turned white. "She survived the Daleks— _the Daleks_! But one day on Earth— _one day_ —and she gets mutilated by some psychopath from a perverse religion! _How does that make sense_! I don't— _I don't understand this_! _I can't wrap my mind around it_!"

The Doctor took a cautious step forward. He could sense Rina's emotional volatility. So he redirected her attention to the hilt. "And what about that? How does that work?" he asked.

Rina brought the weapon up to the level of her heart. "The material inside is rock from the deeper regions of Mino. Since you are apparently familiar with my people, you know that we have certain qualities, one of which is the ability to create an energy field. Telepathy. Telekinesis. These are just some of the traits we possess. For some reason, this rock energizes when exposed to our energy field. It reaches 3000 degrees and it can be used in combat for a 10 minute duration before going inert."

"Fascinating," The Doctor noted.

Then, in a very unexpected move, The Doctor took his index finger to Rina's chin where he used it to tilt her head back to meet his gaze. "Now listen to me," he said, "I'm so sorry for your loss. I'm so very, very sorry. But what you're doing is wrong. I know right now this planet looks chaotic and foolish, but its people will evolve. In just a few decades from now, they'll be traveling the stars. They'll inhabit three galaxies— _three_! Believe me. They will become the people you want them to be. So please, stop this, _right now_."

"How do you know this to be true?" Rina asked while gently pulling away from The Doctor's hand.

And The Doctor explained. He explained everything to her. He told her who he was and how he knew the future. He even let her have a peek inside the TARDIS. When the reality of the situation fell upon Rina's shoulders, she shook her head and she sank a little into herself.

"I've been such a fool," she said.

"Nah," the Doctor replied. "Maybe you did some good. But to go any further is folly. It's time to close up shop and go home. You have your home world, and my sympathies."

Rina slowly nodded her head. "My people were never supposed to be soldiers," she said. "But, I'm trying. We have to be strong. The universe isn't as safe a place as we'd like, and the fog of war is thick here. I don't think I'll ever know if I did the right thing." And with that, Rina said her goodbyes. The Doctor left with the TARDIS. And the destroyer from Mino left Earth's perplexing orbit.


End file.
